The problem of creative imagination. Kantian and Schellingian concepts of productive imagination as an epistemological and ontological source of creativity

Abstract

The object of this research is the problem of creative imagination. The subject of the research is the ontological and epistemological nature of productive imagination in the context of the philosophical searches of I. Kant and F.W.J. Schelling. The purpose of this work is to conceptualize the ontological and epistemological determinants of productive imagination on the basis of Kantian and Schellingian philosophical doctrines. The methodological foundation of this research is the original works of these thinkers of German classical philosophy, as well as the actual works of domestic and foreign specialists in the field of creative philosophy. The authors of the study in their work were guided by comparative-historical, analytical-interpretive, hermeneutic and phenomenological methods. The scientific novelty of the work consists in revealing the ontological and epistemological rootedness of productive imagination. In addition, the authors distinguish between imagination as the ability to generate original images based on the synthesis and transformation of empirical material and fantasy as a way of "virtual" realization of unsatisfied needs and escape from reality. The main conclusion of the study is the position that in the philosophical teaching of I. Kant, productive imagination is revealed in an epistemological perspective, presenting as a general cognitive ability and a condition for the transcendental synthesis of sensuality and reason, while in Schellingian philosophy productive imagination is considered from an ontological point of view, being justified as the ability of the subject to endow physical objects with ideal reality.